Data / Violence / Atrocity Justice: the conviction gap

Methods and sources

Atrocity Justice: the conviction gap

Back to the piece

What this shows

For each year from 2015 to 2024, every case of crime against Scheduled Castes before India’s courts, and where it stood at the year’s end: convicted, acquitted or discharged, ended without trial, or still pending.

What it does not show: These are cases the police registered and sent to court. Cases never registered, and cases still with the police, are not in these figures.

Sources

  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2015, Table 7.4. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2016, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2017, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2018, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2019, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2020, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2021, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2022, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2023, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Crime in India 2024, Volume II, Table 7A.6. Primary source.

Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 8 Oct 2026.

Read these with the numbers

The 2024 change of law
NCRB’s 2024 edition counts crimes under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) instead of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Because of that switch, 2024 may not compare directly with earlier years.
Two conviction measures
NCRB’s conviction rate counts only cases where a trial finished. The 100 cases grid counts every case before the courts, so it also shows the cases left waiting.
2015 and 2016 tables
NCRB changed its court table twice. 2015 comes from a separate table by type of crime, and 2016 from a shorter table. Both are counted here the way the later editions count, with every case carried over or newly sent for trial. For 2015 the figures are that table’s total for the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the total the 2016 table carries its pending cases over from (see the changelog).
Recorded cases only
These are cases the police registered. Cases that were never registered are not in any of these figures.

Key terms

Cases before the courts
Cases pending trial from earlier years plus cases sent for trial during the year.
Convicted
Cases in which the court convicted.
Acquitted or discharged
Cases in which the accused were acquitted after trial, or discharged before it (released by the court because it found no case to answer).
Ended without trial
Cases closed without a trial: withdrawn from prosecution; compounded or compromised (settled between the parties with the court’s permission); disposed of by plea bargaining (the accused pleads guilty in return for a lesser sentence); quashed (cancelled by a High Court); or abated (ended because the accused died), as NCRB lists them for that year.
Pending at year end
Cases still pending trial on 31 December. From 2017, NCRB also lists cases stayed (halted by a higher court’s order) or sent to the record room; they are counted as pending, as NCRB counts them.
NCRB conviction rate
NCRB’s own conviction rate: convictions out of cases in which a trial was completed. NCRB gives none where no trial finished.

Changelog and corrections

Version 3: corrects 2015, so that every year is counted on one basis. NCRB’s 2015 court table (Table 7.4) is now read from its total for the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, not from its total for all crimes against Scheduled Castes, which also counts cases under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes not booked under the Atrocities Act, and other special laws. NCRB’s own 2016 table starts from 113,937 cases pending trial from the previous year: close to the 113,393 the Atrocities Act total left pending at the end of 2015, and far from the 122,083 the all-crimes total left pending, so from 2016 the table counts on the Atrocities Act basis, and 2015 now does too. For 2015: cases still pending at the year’s end, 122,083 to 113,393; NCRB’s conviction rate, 27.6% to 27.2%; cases before the courts, 140,426 to 129,116; convicted, 4,702 to 4,119; acquitted or discharged, 12,310 to 11,024; ended without trial, 1,331 to 580. Each of these moves because a different row of the same table is read, not because NCRB revised a figure; convicted, acquitted or discharged and ended without trial each move by more than 10%. No other year, and no State/UT figure, changed. Version 2 (approved by the owner on 13 October 2026, superseded by this version): Exhibit 2 redrawn as two bars per year on one scale, no figure changed. Version 1 (released 11 October 2026): crimes against Scheduled Castes before the courts, all India, 2015 to 2024, and by State/UT for 2024.

How corrections work. Every change is listed here.

Cite this

The Dalit Project, “Atrocity Justice: the conviction gap”, version 3, data.dalitproject.org/atrocity-justice/, as on 8 Oct 2026.